1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to entering text using consumer electronics equipment, and, more particularly, to entering information related to recordings accessible for playing by the consumer electronics equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of disc changers to play compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs) has increased significantly in recent years, but it remains difficult for users to identify a disc or obtain information about discs in a changer. Many disc changers available today, particularly those holding 50 or more discs, maintain a database of the discs stored in the changer. However, the input device used to enter textual information, such as titles of the discs, may be on the faceplate of the disc changer or on a handheld remote. Some equipment does have separate alphanumeric keyboards for data input, but the input mode is completely separate from playing the discs. This is similar to alphanumeric input in video games, such as when saving a game. All action stops while the text input occurs.
An example of a system that pauses playback of video data to permit data entry is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,468 to Baryla which is directed to digital video displayed on a personal computer, rather than prerecorded video on discs. The text entered while the video is paused is used to provide comments by reviewers prior to distribution of the video, to aid in scene selection and editing. No description is provided in the '468 patent of how the title is initially associated with the video; the first mention of entering a title is in reference to selecting the video to be played back.
One of the problems with entering textual data related to DVDs and CDs is associating the textual data with a disc. The way this is usually done is to first input a slot identifier identifying a position in the changer, and then input the text associated with the slot. This requires that the user know what disc is in each slot for which textual data is being entered. Many times a user will have no idea what is in each slot of the changer at this point. This requires that the disc be removed from the changer to determine what the disc is. This can often cause issues with the changer identification because the changer keys on whether the user has removed or inserted discs. The simple action of taking the disc out to identify it often kicks off a chain reaction where the changer tries to do something with the disc once it is reinserted. The user must also be careful in most cases to place the disc back into the exact same slot in the changer. Failure to do so can result in incorrect information being displayed for the disc because it is now in a different slot than expected by the user.